Ali Hosseini Khamenei is a Twelver Shia marja' and the second and current supreme leader of Iran, in office since 1989. Previously he served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei is the longest serving head of state in the Middle East, as well as the second-longest serving Iranian leader of the last century, after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The Assembly of Experts, also translated as the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership or as the Council of Experts, is the deliberative body empowered to appoint the Supreme Leader of Iran. All directly elected members must first be vetted by the Guardian Council.
Mohammad Yazdi was an Iranian conservative and principlist cleric who served as the head of Judiciary System of Iran between 1989 and 1999. In 2015, he was elected to lead Iran's Assembly of Experts, defeating Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president, by a vote count of 47 to 24.
Iran elects on national level a head of state and the head of government, a legislature, and an "Assembly of Experts". City and Village Council elections are also held every four years throughout the entire country. The president is elected for a four-year term by the citizens. The Parliament or Islamic Consultative Assembly currently has 290 members, also elected for a four-year term in multi- and single-seat constituencies. Elections for the Assembly of Experts are held every eight years. All candidates have to be approved by the Guardian Council. See Politics of Iran for more details.
The fourth Iranian Assembly of Experts election was held on 15 December 2006. The Assembly of Experts is a Council of 86 mujtahids that elect the Supreme Leader, and oversee his actions. The members of the Assembly are elected every eight years directly by the people of Iran.
Mohammad-Bagher Bagheri Kani born in 1926, is an Iranian Shia Mujtahid. He was one of 82-86 Mujtahids to be elected in the First, Second, and Fourth terms in the Assembly of Experts.
Abbas Vaez Tabasi was an influential Iranian cleric who held memberships at different institutions. He was Grand Imam and Chairman of the Astan Quds Razavi board from 1979 until his death in 2016.
The Supreme Leader of Iran, also referred to as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, but officially called the Supreme Leadership Authority, is the head of state and the highest political and religious authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The armed forces, judiciary, state television, and other key government organisations such as Guardian Council and Expediency Discernment Council are subject to the Supreme Leader. According to the constitution, the Supreme Leader delineates the general policies of the Islamic Republic, supervising the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive branches. The current lifetime officeholder, Ali Khamenei, has issued decrees and made the final decisions on the economy, the environment, foreign policy, education, national planning, and other aspects of governance in Iran. Khamenei also makes the final decisions on the amount of transparency in elections, and has dismissed and reinstated presidential cabinet appointees. The Supreme Leader is legally considered "inviolable", with Iranians being routinely punished for questioning or insulting him.
Ayatollah Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari was an Iranian Shiite cleric and politician. He was a member of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Assembly of Experts from the East Azerbaijan electorate. 4th term Mojtahed Shabestari won with 671,254 and last period 743,818 votes. He was MP of Islamic Consultative Assembly in the electoral district of Tehran in the beginning of the revolution for first, second, fourth and fifth terms.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iran on 26 February 2016 to elect members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly for all seats in the 10th parliament in the Islamic Republic era and the 34th since the Persian Constitutional Revolution. A second round was held on 29 April 2016 for some constituencies where candidates failed to obtain the required minimum 25 percent of votes cast. The elected MPs served from 28 May 2016 to 27 May 2020.
The fifth Iranian Assembly of Experts election were held in Iran on 26 February 2016 to elect the members of the Assembly of Experts. All 88 members of the Assembly of Experts, who are known as mujtahids, are directly elected. The elections had been planned for 2014, but were delayed in order for the election to be held alongside the Islamic Consultative Assembly elections.
This is a summary of the electoral history of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an Iranian politician who was member of Assembly of Experts from Tehran Province since 1982 and Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council since 1989, and has been previously Chairman of the Assembly of Experts (2007–2011), President of Iran (1989–1997), and The Speaker and member of Islamic Consultative Assembly (1980–1989) from Tehran and Minister of Interior (1979–1980).
The third Iranian Assembly of Experts election was held on October 23, 1998 to elect all 86 members in 28 constituencies. 17,857,869 citizens voted in the elections, marking a 46.3% turnout.
The second Iranian Assembly of Experts election was held on October 8, 1990 to elect all 83 members in 24 constituencies. The election was the first election of the assembly since Ayatollah Khomeini's death and election of Ali Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader. This election had the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran with 37.09% of the eligible voters participating.
Sheikh Zaynolabideen Ghorbani Persian: شیخ زینالعابدین قربانی, is an Iranian Ayatollah. He represented the Supreme Leader of Iran for Gilan Province, as well as leading prayers in Lahijan and Rasht. He represented the people in Gilan for both the Assembly of Experts, and Islamic Consultative Assembly.
Sheikh Abbas Ali Akhtari was an Iranian Ayatollah. He represented the Supreme Leader of Iran in Semnan province, while also serving as the Imam of Friday Prayer in Semnan. He also represented the people in Khorasan province in the early 80's for the first term of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. He later represented the people of Tehran province for the seventh term of the Iranian Parliament. He was a member of Assembly of Experts, from February 2021 to October 2022 in the fifth term of the Assembly of Experts, after the death of Nasrallah Shah-Abadi. He was elected in the first midterm elections of the Assembly of Experts on 23 February 2020.
